"A telling thing happened yesterday. Donald Trump figured out that Project 2025 was toxic. So he’s trying to distance himself. But as numerous commentators noted, that’s an impossible task. He’s inextricably linked to the plan.
"Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Project 2025 indicates just how toxic that plan is with voters. As political scientist Ian Bremmer dryly noted, it seems that 'the second [A]merican revolution apparently [is] not polling as well as the first in internal focus groups.'"
" Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson was even more direct, saying that Trump was trying to distance himself from Project 2025 because 'most of it polls about like Ebola,' the deadly virus that causes severe bleeding and organ failure, and has a mortality rate of 80 to 90%."
"Trump claims he’s not connected to Project 2025. That seems like a convenient fiction that the Heritage Foundation, which is behind Project 2025, maintains as well. …
I have questions based on Trump’s post itself. How do you 'know nothing' about the Project and have no idea who is behind it, but also know that you disagree with some of the things they’re saying?"
"Many of the people working on the Project and many of the chapter authors are former Trump Administration employees or allies. …
[But as Rep. Jared Huffman says,]
both Heritage and the Trump campaign want people to suspend disbelief and think their respective efforts are disconnected."
"Project 2025 doesn’t contain overt references to Trump. In that regard, it reminds me of the Supreme Court’s opinion in the immunity appeal, Trump v. U.S. The Court pretended it was writing rules for theoretical future presidents. They tried to divorce their decision from the reality that it could let Donald Trump, whom they dismissed without naming him as 'present exigencies,' escape from his effort to overturn the election with no consequences."
"Hang project 2025 around the GOP’s neck. It's not just Trump but the entire GOP that is complicit in an authoritarian agenda to derail our democracy and chip away at our hard-earned freedoms. Hold them all accountable for Project 2025."
"Trump is lying. His sweaty, small fingerprints are all over Project 2025, its architects, and its extremist agenda that will create a Trump dictatorship under the guise of a sham democracy. The only reason he’s backtracking is because his ally threatened the majority with a revolution. Unfortunately, that doesn’t go over well with most Americans especially during Independence Day."
"Democrats can finally learn from Black women, such as Taraji P. Henson, an actress, who stared directly into the camera while hosting the BET Awards last week and spent time warning Americans about the Project 2025 agenda. She helped make this insidious project finally go mainstream. She is not a journalist, most of whom are currently obsessed with Biden’s age, nor a Democratic official, most of whom have lost their spine and fight."
"'Project 2025' is nothing short of a 900-page blueprint for guiding Donald Trump’s second term of office. ...
Trump is now claiming he has 'no idea who is behind' Project 2025.
This is another in a long line of Trump lies.
The Project 2025 playbook was written by more than 20 officials who Trump himself appointed during his first term. If he has 'no idea' who they are, he’s showing an alarming cognitive decline."
"Project 2025 was, in fact, founded by three alumni of the Trump White House. Its advisory board includes a host of Trump-aligned organizations, including the Center For Renewing America, which was founded by Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought, and projects involving Stephen Miller, Trump’s former advisor."
"'Project 2025' began trending on Google moments after actress Taraji P. Henson urged guests at the 2024 BET Awards to look it up, educate themselves on it and vote."
"'I'm telling y'all, you better show up and show out. I'm being serious now,' Henson said as she looked directly into the camera in the middle of the show on June 30. 'It's not just about the presidential election, you guys. It's time for us to play chess, not checkers.'"
"The reason Trump posted about it is because one of the architects of Project 2025, which has the complete support and blessing of the Trump campaign, admitted this is their revolution and the majority better accept it...or else. 'Kneel or die' essentially. Not good politics!"
@wdlindsy the project's principle's are themselves a declaration of revolution. The fact the guy had to actually say those specific words in plain English for it to get any attention is honestly troubling - but I am S O grateful to Taraji Henson for doing what she did, and calling broader attention to it
@fcktheworld587 I think most people who are on board with Project2025 wouldn't really have a clue what the word "revolution" means in historical terms.
@Tharpa I agree. And given how Trump wants to pretend that he's peeling off Black voters and has lots of Black support, this obviously has sent him into orbit.
@wdlindsy
Even if he knew them once, Trump almost never pays any attention to what other people are doing unless it profits him immediately and directly. Project 2025 is just something that some people he once knew came up with. He's never read it. Steve Bannon explained it once and it sounds great, so Trump hopes it's as good as they say. He probably vaguely remembers people talking about Project 2025, but he was preoccupied with thinking about that LIV golf tournament at Bedminster that week.
@Threadbane It's clear to me he's deliberately prevaricating and pretending. He sandwiched these statements in among comments that suggest he's seeing some polling that worries him, and he realizes that Project2025 is toxic, so he wants to pretend he has distance from it. This all comes right after Roberts at Heritage Foundation speaks of a revolution and bloodshed if liberals stand in the way, and after Taraji P. Henson put Project2025 out on Front Street for Black voters.